How to organise a GREAT in-person event - personal impressions of a graphic recorder

For the last 11 years since I’ve been doing graphic recording, I have been to a LOT of events. Before Covid, I would even travel for events outside of Belgium, but then during the pandemic a lot has changed. The event industry was shook, and everything moved online. Now I find that there is a good balance between working at in-person and online events and I wanted to share my personal views on what makes a great event. For this post, I will focus on how to organise a great in-person event and in the next one, I will tackle online events. Let’s dive in.

Be “on-brand”

Think about your message and your brand, and try to be “on-brand” at your event. For example, if you are organising a conference about digital advancements, try to showcase them in every aspect of your event, not just in your lineup of speakers. Everything related to the conference should include some “digital is the way” elements, such as the website, the tech, the exhibition area, etc. If at a digital conference the wifi doesn’t work, that’s not the end of the world of course, but it’s not a good look. Another example is, if you are organising a conference about biofuels, make sure to book transportation that runs on biofuels to take the participants to offsite events, the airport, etc.

Natural light makes so much difference

Try to have a room with natural light - this one is difficult of course, because many of the large meeting rooms are in spaces where there are no windows but if at all possible, try to have a venue with natural light, it makes a lot of difference. When people spend their day in a space with natural light, they’ll be more energetic, less tired, they will be able to focus better, have better ideas, basically every aspect of their wellbeing will benefit from natural light.

Give room to the ideas of the audience

Have at least one session where people can share their thoughts, for example in a world cafe setting, or similar. People have so many valuable insights that can benefit the whole group, and it feels good to share them but very often, there is just no possibility because content is coming at them throughout the day. When you set aside time and let the audience share their thoughts, they will feel valued and included and it will give them a better overall conference experience.

Help break the ice during the networking breaks with interactive activities

Offer people some activities during the networking break - networking is hard but if people get a chance to do something together, such as play a little game, do some collaborative colouring or anything else, they will have a much easier time making connections.

Include live illustration for deeper understanding

This one will be no surprise: offer people visual takeaways. People appreciate this so much as it helps them make sense of everything they have heard, they see connections they might have missed otherwise, and are inspired and energised by seeing it all laid out visually. If you want to take this a step further, you can even offer interactive graphic recording where people can even have their say and add their thoughts to the graphic recording themselves.

I hope you found some good tips in this list. Next time I’ll share about how to organise great online meetings. If you are organising and event that you think could benefit from graphic recording, feel free to reach out.